The invention relates generally to a flexible automation system for variable industrial processes, preferable to a flexible automation system for the processes that occur on an oil or gas conveyor platform. The flexible automation system has programmable controllers which are preferably linked via bus subsystems, to which process variables are assigned in digital and analog form. The bus subsystems have communication interfaces for retrieving the process variables from the programmable controllers.
When automated systems are expanded and upgraded, it is frequently necessary to quickly change the scope and sequence of the system's communication. With each change, however, a considerable and complicated amount of programming results that may contain many errors when bus systems as well as a point-to-point system are used. In the course of the operating time of a larger system, this amount of programming can even exceed the original amount of programming.